Strangers you meet for a minute but often think about

[AbbyGal]

Gatwick Airport morning of 9/1/01, we were flying to Greece on holiday and were next to a Gate for a New York flight. Young woman, in tears, travelling alone with a baby and a grizzly toddler who was playing up. I played peekaboo with him for a while until our flight was called.
The atrocity happened while we were in the air and i assume she ended up being grounded somewhere with her children.

I flew to relatives abroad a lot when mine were little and often think of her.

It probably was around then, he had a very swanky silver convertible, was definitely American and looked the spitting image of Brad Pitt. Was further north though than Oxfordshire and as far as I’m aware wasn’t filming nearby. Saying that Johnny Depp was very nearby recently so anything is possible.

I was out for the night in New York and had a row with the guy I was seeing and stormed off. Before mobile phones etc. Had no money and got lost. Turned down a dodgy street and suddenly realised I was in trouble. Stumbled into a bar. Queued for ages and told the bartender everything over loud music. She gave me her tips and called me a cab. I couldn't even remember the name of my hotel but she worked it out and called ahead to check I was headed to the right place. I tried to go back to thank her the next day but couldn't find the bar.

A man working at a cafe on a beach in Tunisia in 1998. He asked me to read a letter from the Home Office out loud to him, so he could understand it. His wife was already living in the UK. It was the hardest legalese I have ever seen in my life.

A lady I worked with years ago (can't remember her name). She was about 40 years older than us and merrily told us about all the men who had proposed to her because "that was the only way for them to get sex in those days, dear!"

A lady in a cafe who sat at my table as all the others were taken. We got chatting and I said some of the worries I had and she said they would all come right eventually. She said I wouldn't remember her name but I would always remember meeting her.

The nurse who had to explain (I think I had gone into some sort of stressed trance) that the machines were beeping and buzzing because the sepsis was now overwhelming my son's heart and lungs. (He lived).

And my son's paediatrician. (My son is autistic). His useless first school had decided he had attachment disorder and the paediatrician looked at me and said, "It's all the rage at the moment. It's a pile of old bollocks".

I did that! Maybe it was me 🤣

We live in a rural area with our horses at home. We particularly moved there because of the off road riding straight from our house. I have a young daughter and that day I took my daughter out on her old lovely pony with me riding my young horse. I chose this route so he wasn’t on a road as he was just learning and it was just a few bridle paths through open fields in a circular route back home.

As we approached about half way I heard track bikes (loud motorbikes I think that go across countryside) and saw two young teenagers tearing it up heading towards us.

I felt my horse panic and told my daughter to hold onto her pony as I was next to a ditch and felt he could run backwards or bolt and I didn’t want her to follow if he ran.

The teenagers could see my horse jogging and agitated and probably saw my fearful face. They shouted to each other and I thought ‘here we go!’ Amazingly they slowed, turned off their bikes and got off them and waited for us.

My horse was spinning a bit and I was trying to calm him. However, he followed the lead of my daughter on her pony and I was able to thank the lads for being so amazing. They even let my young horse sniff their bikes as he’s very curious and patted his nose.

I kept thanking them and saying they were wonderful and their parents would be so proud of them.

I don’t know who they were but I’m so grateful they have my horse time to collect himself, helped prevent an accident and showed such kindness.

We’ve never come across track bikes across those fields again. Nor the boys.

Since then my horse has been really great with motorcycles out on the roads and I do think it’s because of that good first experience he had with those teenagers.

Small kind things make a big difference to humans and animals.

I was starting my first ever real job and was horribly nervous and unsure of myself and wearing shoes that had given me blisters. While I was sorting myself out on the train the old chap next to me chatted for the whole, relatively short trip and I got off the train in a completely different, positive frame of mind. I was so thankful how he took my mind off my worries.

Another time a few years ago we were eating a meal in a smart ish gastropub with my husband and daughters and they were chattering a bit, nothing particularly loud but I was conscious of them messing about, attracting what I thought were disapproving stares from an older couple sat nearby. As we were leaving they caught up with me to tell me how lovely it was to see such lovely, happy girls in a restaurant and how well behaved they were. Made my day!

A young boy who saw my “mates” ditch me outside the club and insisted on sharing the taxi home with me so I wasn’t alone. He wasn’t interested in anything from me romantically or otherwise, he just didn’t want me to go home alone. Lovely manners ❤️

A lady in a cafe who sat at my table as all the others were taken. We got chatting and I said some of the worries I had and she said they would all come right eventually. She said I wouldn't remember her name but I would always remember meeting her.

@Frith2013

Whether this was recently or a long time ago I bet you can remember what you both ate.

In a queue at a supermarket. A woman being served talked so horribly and dismissively to her daughter who looked to be about 17. I still wish I had said to the daughter you don't deserve that treatment and it is her not you. But I wasn't brave enough. I hope the daughter has found a partner and friends who treat her well.

Aged 17 or 18, I used to get the No25 bus from where I lived in Forest Gate East London, to Holborn.

One morning, an older man came and sat next to me, and started chatting. I really didn't want to talk to him, and wanted to get up and move seats, but the bus was crowded.

As it turned out, he was a wealth of knowledge and regaled me with stories about all the places we passed on the route - lots of interesting facts as we passed through The City.

He was so interesting, and I was so pleased I hadn't been able to swap seats.

I never saw him again, but I often thought of him on my journey to work.

i alighted from a bus, running late for work, was about to cross a road when i felt an arm block my path. I had just missed being run over by car. The man had saved my life. Before I could thank him, he disappeared.

I met an elderly couple queuing in a Post Office in Suffolk at Christmas to send their cards. 2018 or 2019

They'd met when she worked at a PO in London and he'd scoured the office every day for months for people who needed stamps so he could run the errand for them and have a chance to talk to her. They'd just celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary and were still very much in love. I often wonder how they are, if the pandemic was kind to them and if they are still alive and well.

About 3 months ago. I can't remember what we ate!

Saw my ex today we looked at each other across the way so to speak, as she was stepping off the escalator but I dunno, then she was in the wind.

For context not seen her in person for years

In about 2002, I just came off a night shift in a warehouse and went to the 24 hour Asda, it was about 6 AM. There was a couple with a toddler in the car park - they’d just come out of the smaller hospital next to the shops and had to go to the larger hospital in the next city. The kid was crying and the parents looked stressed. They asked me for money for the bus so I gave them some, I can’t remember how much it was but it turned out they thought I worked at Asda because I was in hi vis and they wanted to come back the next day and give the money back. I said not to worry and it didn’t matter, never saw them again but hope they’re all ok.

Another one, it was Christmas and there was an old style roundabout with painted wooden horses and carriages. I was there with the DC and an older lady wanted to go on the roundabout, she said she loved these when she was a child. She had trouble walking and struggled to get on a horse, so the roundabout guy suggested she get into a carriage instead. She did, and smiled and waved at us as she went past. I don’t know why I remember her, maybe because she looked so happy.

I met a woman on a flight to the US who had a very interesting story, she was flying to Hawaii to meet her husband, who she met online and had moved out there for, from Yorkshire. I don't usually enjoy chatting to strangers but she was so interesting. Anyway, when she fell asleep on the flight she let out constant smelly farts and it ruined the moment somewhat...

This thread reminds me of these: https://metro.co.uk/rush-hour-crush/

I liked the story about the horses. I was riding my bike once with DH and he had DD attached to his on one of those kind of bike extension things where the child can pedal on stabilsers but the adult steers.

We approached two rather scary looking teenagers. They moved to one side to let us through and said 'that's sick, would have liked one of those' and gave DD a thumbs-up.

Early 2000s I was 13 and coming back from Spain on a flight on my own (I had gone with a friend for a 3 week holiday but was so homesick I came home early) they sat me with a little boy about 8 but he was so grown up and used to flying and made me feel so much better as I was so nervous. He was flying on his own as he visited his grandparents. Can't remember his name but I'll never forget him .

I went to A&E with kidney stones. The pain was unbelievable. I fell out of the cab on to the pavement outside the hospital

There was a lady in a wheelchair outside with her husband. She got straight up, put me in the wheelchair and made her husband wheel me up to A&E where they made sure I was seen by triage.

Thank goodness for them. I wouldn't have been able to get up off the floor without their help

Used to love reading these on days I used to catch a train, thanks for reminding me

Dd2 was in hospital aged 17mo. Nothing too serious. Got chatting to a lady in the playroom who was in with her son who had been extremely ill with Kawasaki Disease. His name began with R, and he was about 5, I think. He was over the worst but still very unwell. She had four other children and was so, so stressed but was, at the same time, just lovely to chat with.

I tried to find her to say bye and all the best to R when we left but when I did, she was by his bed clutching his hand.

This was 2012. I do hope R recovered.

Sitting on a bench in a shopping centre, breastfeeding the baby and watching the toddler play on one of those supermarket toys. An elderly man sat down and we chatted. After a few minutes, he noticed the baby was being fed (it wasn't obvious), and told me how lovely it was to see. And spoke about how he remembered his mum feeding his younger siblings. It was a lovely cycle-of-life moment and I often think of it.

I've had a couple of similar conversations with other older folks over the years. Always felt blessed to have such positive interactions while breastfeeding